14 DAY TRIAL // Xperia X1, the super handset announced by Sony Ericsson during MWC 2008 (11 - 14 February) is clearly one of the most expected mobile devices of 2008. The hype around X1 grew a few days ago when it was rumored that the handset would not be available during 2008, as initially announced, but only at the beginning of 2009. Fortunately for Sony Ericsson fans (and mobile enthusiasts in general), that rumor turned out to be untrue, since Aldo Liguori, Corporate Vice President of the Global Communications and PR department of Sony Ericsson, confirmed that Xperia X1 will come in the second half of 2008.
Although many expected Sony Ericsson to present a full-working Xperia X1 at CeBIT 2008 (4 - 9 March), we only saw a prototype that doesn't even have an installed OS - that's why the "real unreal" expression in the article's title. Even so, the Softpedia team in Hanover took some shots of the handset.
The first impression is that X1 is kind of bulky, looking more like a PDA than a mobile phone. Sure, the device is far more than a simple mobile phone, but still, a smaller size would have been really great. Anyway, this is just an nonfunctional prototype, as I already mentioned, so we must not judge the handset by it.
When launched, the real Xperia X1 should bring a 3-inch display (800 x 480 pixels), a full sliding QWERTY keyboard and next-generation multimedia, Web and communication features, all packed in an arc-slider designed device. X1 will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 and will pack a 3.15 Megapixel camera with auto focus, flash and video (VGA at 30 fps), GPS, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, 400MB of internal memory, microSD card support and so on.
Hopefully, Xperia X1 will come before Christmas 2008, as announced. Meanwhile, enjoy the live images with the X1 prototype currently showcased at CeBIT 2008.
Update: in the end, Sony Ericsson brought a functional Xperia too, besides the one we took shots of.
Live report by Bogdan Popa and Cosmin Vasile from CeBIT 2008 Hanover, Germany.
